All The Same
by brilliantmemories
Summary: “I don’t mind where you come from, as long you come to me.” One-shot - warning, mild slash.


**Title: **"All the Same"

**Pairing:** Seth x Edward, Edward x Max

**Rating:** K+

**Summary**_**: **_Edward leaves Seth for another man, causing Seth to fall into hysteria and makes him try to fix himself. He can't help but fall back into the 'cycle'.

**Authors Notes:** _Italics paragraphs_ are flashbacks, because I didn't want to put in words where the flash back started and ended. Regular Italics are thoughts. Other than that, this fan fiction is based off the song called 'All the Same' by the 'Sick Puppies'. Prefects need love too. Enjoy.

**Disclaimer:** I DO NOT OWN "Bully" and any of its characters, etc. or anything else that I mention within this entire story.

--

_I don't care. No I wouldn't dare to fix the twist in you…_

Seth walked glumly around the school, doing his regular route. Every once and a while, he'd try to brush back the honey gold hair that once laid on his head, but he'd just shaved it off before the school year started. Sighing, he kicked a rock in frustration. His mind was playing the scene over and over again, filling his stomach with dread and despair. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a nerd hold up a stink bomb. Usually Seth would run over and catch the evil doer before it left his fingers, but Seth pretended he didn't see it. Even though it was against school policy, he took out his iPod from his prefect jacket and plugged him his earphones, drowning out the sounds of the annoying pests with music.

Stopping in his tracks, he took a breath. This song was exactly it – it fit yesterday.

_"Go ahead! Say it! You're leaving me, aren't you?!" Seth hollered at Edward. He flinched as he fumbled with his fingers, looking down at his shoes. It was very early in the morning, no one was around – the place was a ghost town at this time of day. That was why Edward wanted to see him in the morning…_

_"It's just… Seth…" Edward reached out to touch his shoulder, but Seth pulled it away quickly, his face still furious._

_"Why are you doing this? What have I done wrong?!" Edward was frightened, he had never seen this side of Seth before – sure, he saw him yelling and busting students but that was his job, but this wasn't. Hell, they weren't even supposed to fall in love in the first place, Crabblesnitch had said that himself on the first day of their training. Like they believed him, they were straight at the time, never knowing what would happen in time to come._

_"You haven't done anything… I just… think it would be better if we stuck to our work… instead of you know, passion," he said. He wasn't looking Seth right in the eye._

_"You're returning back to Max, aren't you? He's told you another lie, that he's in love with you again, hasn't he?" Seth said coldly. Edward detected a hint of jealousy in his voice and that broke his heart. He knew that he and Max were lovers before and that always bothered him but he never allowed his feelings about it show._

_"No! How could you think of such a thing? I thought you trusted me!" Seth was getting on his last nerve. It was over, but apparently he didn't get it. Seth turned his head away, shaking violently. Edward yearned to reach out and touch him, but he had to remind himself Seth wasn't his to hold anymore. His eyes began to tear up and he sniffled, causing Seth to look over at him with agonized face._

_"I don't like illusions I can't see, Edward."_

A tap on his back made him come back to his senses, waking him from his dreamy state. Pulling out of the earphones, he looked over his shoulder to see Max. His face expression hardened and he started to walk again.

"You've been standing there for a long time, what's wrong?" there was no source of compassion in his voice. _Edward must have seen me and asked Max to do it…_ Seth thought, his brows furrowing. Leave it to Edward to annoy him like he did before. Max's strong hand grasped his shoulder tightly. "I asked, _what's wrong?" _His words had a certain type of poison to them, it leaked through his body and he wanted to hit him hard. But a picture of Edward smiling made him stop. He couldn't do it. Edward cared for Max and if he hit him there and now, Max would obviously run off telling him about everything – possibly making the story worse than it was.

"Nothing, I was just listening to a song," Seth sneered, walking up the steps near the large Bullworth fountain. He had grown found of this small area. It was where his first kiss was with Edward, in the shallow glow of the fountain at night, the crickets singing in the background, not a single person in sight. It was pure bliss. Those evening, they shortly returned to their special rooms in the dorm. But that was all over now. Or at least, it would be for a while until Edward would come back crawling on his knees, begging for forgiveness and every time, every _six_ times, Seth would accept him with grace, back into his longing arms. But whenever he saw the two at a café shop, his mind screamed with anger, and he had to leave immediately and go to the gym and take out the punching bag. No one dared to ask him why he was beating the hell out of a big bag of sand instead of students. No one dared to tell him he was doing it wrong. No one dared to even look at him when he was at the punching bag.

By the time he was pulled back to reality once again, Max had gone, leaving him standing alone – _again. _In the past, he had made endless mistakes, calling Edward filthy names, making him do his work. It was very rare that Seth treated him with kindness and compassion, being the person he was. At times like this, he wondered why Edward stayed with him up until the point Max invaded their relationship. The two had been inseparable, doing their patrols together, eating lunch together, going to sleep together – even though no one knew that one – and laughing with each other. The second Max turned over and looked at him, told him to meet them outside him room was the first night he had the affair. It wasn't a full blown one, just a few kisses here and there – Edward had confessed this all to him when he broke up with him for the first time – his feeling had switched. He needed something _new._

Time passed quickly when his mind was elsewhere. Whenever he went into a mood like this, he wouldn't bust anyone or even yell. He would keep his eyes focused on his feet, his mind swimming with millions of thoughts. Even Hopkins tried to throw him out of his state by hitting him with a firecracker but failed as he merely flinched and shrugged it off. He remembered the first time Edward came back to him.

_"Seth!" Edward called. They were on a late night patrol – each doing opposite ends of the school. He ran over from the west end to find Seth absent mindlessly walking along the east side, just passing by the parking lot filled with laughing bullies. __**Why?**__ Why was he wasting his breath?_

_"Call me misery…" he replied dully. Edward squinted his eyes; the corners of his mouth turning downwards. Seth looked over his shoulder slowly to see that Edward was hurt, not physically, but emotionally. He tore his gaze away, forcing himself not to look at the distressed prefect, he knew he would do something he regretted, say a cruel remark._

_"Please, listen – to - me!" he cried, his last words choked. Seth stopped, causing Edward to bump into him from the back. Growling loudly, he quickly turned around and grasped Edward's shoulders tightly, making his gasp with pain, tears rolling down his cheeks. He felt like slapping him hard, men shouldn't cry in front of another man, in fact, men shouldn't cry in front of anybody, period. But the way Edward cried made him feel guilty at the thought. Seth looked at him, a solid look and eased the tension on his shoulders softly. Edward took this as a yes._

_"I'm really sorry for leaving you… it's just… Where do I start…?" Seth looked behind his rectangle thin rimmed glasses and into his hazel eyes. _

_"You can start off with what changed you. Why did you leave me for… him?" He didn't dare speak the name, or he might've been sent over the edge._

_"Well… the way he… kissed me was different and I just wanted to try it and… I just got carried away… I still loved you though, I loved you all the time, Seth…" the way he sounded was so pathetic. Never once, had Seth heard him use that wry tone before. As he looked him in the eyes, Edward looked back. As he ripped his eyes away Seth grunted, pushed him away, and turned around; muttering something about 'wasted time'. Edward choked back a sob and grabbed his arm, pulling him back and kissed him. Seth flinched backwards, pulling himself away from the kiss Edward desperately tried to keep it together, but was no match for Seth's strength._

_"Please, Seth!" Seth grabbed his wrist, making him sequel with pain. "It hurts…" His body betraying him, Seth immediately let go of him and stepped forward, wrapping his arms around Edward. His shirt was getting covered in wet, salty tears, but he didn't care. Edward was back in his arms now and he knew he would be there for a long time. _

"Bullshit…" Seth whispered, glancing at the clock on his arm. Past curfew, so now he actually had to do his job right. As the cold night nipped at his open skin, he enclosed his jacket tighter around him, folding his arms over his chest, still keeping the flashlight line in front of him. It wasn't his fault that Edward looked so damn adorable when he was unloved. Making his way around the fountain, he took in a sharp breath. _A moan? _He flashed his light around the fountain and saw a small boy standing, frozen in the spot, wide eyed.

"Stop sneaking around! Get out!" he yelled, running towards what looked like a Jock… and a Prep? Stopping with the flash light on the two, the tiny athlete's eyes opened wide and he ran off, arms flailing. The Prep gave him a hard stare and walked over to him, put a hundred dollar bill in his breast pocket and winked, running after the Jock. Seth stood there, confused, shrugging it off and turned around to see nothing. He was at least hoping that Edward would be standing there, wanting to be in his strong arms once again, safe from the rest of the world.

As he glanced at his watch, it was way past two o'clock. Mumbling something about sleep, he slowly walked down the large concrete steps, passing Karl on his way. Nodding at each other, he smiled. Seth was the most corrupt out of them all, but he wouldn't admit it – out loud. Out of the corner of his eye, he swore he saw the two 'love birds' with their arms around each other. Seth spat on the ground and ran to the dorm for a good nights sleep.

It never came.

_**One month later…**_

Seth snatched Hopkins by the collar, smashing him down onto the ground. There was a loud crack before he groaned, lying on the floor, hands covering his face. Looking around, the students who were watching quickly looked away, not wanting the same treatment Jimmy had received. Seth wiped his hands together before stepping over the boy who lay motionlessly and grinned, continuing his patrol. Everything was looking good; he hadn't a care in the whole world. Not even Edward bothered him as his friend did his patrol _– _alone. _Where's Max?_ Cocking his head sideways, he caught up with him and slapped him on the back.

"Ouch!" Edward yelped - making Seth realized he hit him too hard and chuckled, putting his hands in his pockets. Edward hissed directly at Seth before picking up his pace.

"Hey, that's not nice!" Seth called playfully after him, catching up beside him.

"Leave me alone, Kolbe," Seth stopped in his tracks. Edward rarely called him by his last name unless he was upset or frustrated. Smiling, he turned around and started to walk the opposite way, the wind whipping around his jacket. The sound of the leaves rustling was calm in a way. Seth was doing better, his mind more open to new ideas and yes – he was taking anger management. It was a surprise to Dr. Crabblesnitch, but he was doing it and he had his therapist number to prove it.

"Seth! Wait!" Edward came over running, tapping his fingers on Seth's broad shoulders. He flinched but turned around. "Okay look… I haven't been completely honest with you…" he seemed more interested in his shoes than Seth's eyes. Sighing, he folded his arms and listened.

"You see… I felt bad for Max as he was going through a rough time and-"

"Through the whole year?" Seth spat, scowling. Edward growled at him loudly.

"Yes! Surprisingly, people have problems for more than six weeks, Seth!" Seth knew that was true, he'd had his rage ever since he was a young adolescent himself. "He looked so… alone… like I used to be before I met you…" Seth flinched; he knew that tone of voice. He'd use it when he was extremely upset or something was troubling – Edward was an open book to him. He couldn't look him in the eye, it was too hard, he didn't want to take Edward back and he knew if he saw a tear, or any form of depression he would fall back into the cycle.

"Ah, interesting," Seth said blankly, pretending to yawn. _It was a stupid idea to come up and see him…_ he thought before pressing on. Edward's hand squeezed Seth's, trying to lace their fingers back together.

"Please, Seth… _I love you_…" his words were a low whisper.

Seth jerked his arm away and spun around, his face in Edward's.

"How _dare_ you say that to me! You're lucky I'm not beating you right here and now you… you…" his mind went blank and he couldn't find the words. His eyes began to water and he immediately turned away and started to run. Students stared at him, brows raised, exchanging words as they crept away to the main building. Taking a sharp turn, he ran into the parking lot and down the driveway, taking a left into a small path. Stopping to catch his breath, he listened for signs of Edward. The silence was comforting as he fell against the wall, falling deeper into hysteria.

"Seth…" _his_ voice called softly. Seth's empty eyes flickered up to his heart shaped face, his heart stopping for a moment. He covered his tear stained face with his hands with his chest heaving. "Don't cry, _please_."

Edward rarely ever used compassion or empathy. He was always cruel to everyone like all the prefects were - they were all corrupt in their own ways. But that was what brought them together.

"It's just all the same, Edward…" he took in a deep breath, his voice more stable now, "You want me, you leave, then you come back and then leave me again! It's just a simple cycle… A person can only handle so much…" He hadn't expected himself to break down, especially being the strong brute he was. Silence washed over them, cries of the students in the background hid their heart beats. Edward sat next to him and put his hands behind his head.

Hours passed as they sat together, both alone in the world. Edward snuggled up closer to Seth and put his arm around him. He didn't care. Seth took in a deep breath, _mind racing_, leaned in close, _head pounding_, Edward's lips nearing his, _heart racing_, and kissed him. They fell down together in the grass, a jumble of legs and arms wrapped around each other, kissing passionately. He had missed this for a month, and longed for Edward more than anything. He was his drug, his form of cocaine.

_I don't mind where you come from, as long as you come to me. _


End file.
